How AI is changing SEO in 2026

2026 has brought a fundamental shift in SEO. ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews have become an important way people look for information about companies and services. Traditional SEO still matters, but businesses that do not optimise for AI lose a share of potential customers.

The scale is large. According to Eurostat (2025), 56% of people in Norway aged 16-74 used generative AI in the previous three months, the highest of 33 European countries. According to Statcounter (June 2026), ChatGPT holds roughly 73% of AI chatbot share in Norway, followed by Copilot, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. Your site must therefore be understandable not only to Google but also to language models.

Key elements of SEO for AI: structured data (Schema.org, such as LocalBusiness, Service and FAQPage), a clear heading hierarchy, FAQ sections in question-and-answer format, concrete indicative prices and naturally written copy. Note: Google has restricted FAQ rich results, but a well-written FAQ still helps both users and AI models.

Equally important is consistent company information across sources (website, Google Business Profile, directories, social media) and technical accessibility: a fast site, no blocking of crawlers you want to admit, and content available in HTML rather than only in scripts.

At Nettivo every site is built from day one for visibility in classic search engines and in AI tools. If your site was built before 2024, it is probably not optimised for AI. Contact us (nettivo.no/kontakt) and we will check what to fix first.